You might have heard his name when he organized the We Say Gay Rally, or the number of awards he has won during academic competitions like debate or IHSSA, but when it comes to being a high schooler, there isn’t anybody who breaks the limits of being a senior than Josue Aleman.

Aleman has been involved with the community of East High School social scale on a big level; where some might see him as the debate/speech person, to others, he’s someone who’s involved with theatre, small things like golf or tennis, and to some he is an individual who’s quite intelligent. Aleman during his freshman and sophomore years wasn’t much for say, just known to a few; for golf and solving rubric cubes in a fast pace. He was still quite knowledgeable for his time. While he had an interest in many things, he still had a way to go when it came to what he wanted to do.

“My freshman year, I only did golf and track, but track got canceled, and my sophomore year I don’t believe I did any school activities at all,” Aleman said.

Going into his junior year, Aleman decided to start to get involved in many difficult academic classes relating to STEM or AP classes with some extracurricular activities, like being on the tech team for theatre, but one of those new extracurricular activities Aleman decided to try out for was debate. Now adapting to debating was no easy task, but Aleman’s hard work paid off when he won first place in a tournament after only participating for the second time. Clearly showing a talent for speech and debate, he continued to better himself throughout the 2021-2022 debate season to where he was able to snag a bid for the 2022 National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. Even though fundraising to even go to Kentucky might have been difficult, he was able to compete among many of the best debaters in the nation, and it didn’t just stop there for debate.

As Aleman went onto his senior year, he was set out on making the most of his last year of high school. He, of course, continued with his debate career, to which he was able to win Congressional Debate State Championship at the Iowa Forensic League State Tournament and also qualify for the 2023 National Speech and Debate Tournament in Phoenix/Mesa, Arizona. But Aleman doesn’t just do debate but many other things as well. One of the things that Aleman decided to try out for was a role in the high school musical. While he was just the person who assisted with tech and sound for theatre, he decided to audition for the musical “Heathers” for the role of J.D. Vance, in which he was able to get the part, and was able to handle while also doing debate at the same time and still achieve success in both.

“My favorite high school memories were both the closing night of the musical and winning the Congressional Debate State championship… School has been hard since I have been taking a lot of hard classes and I have been involved in a lot of things, but I have been a lot more active in extracurriculars,” Aleman said.

Even after the musical ended, he just went back to being the sound tech person for theatre, and with the debate season ending for him, he was recommended by his teachers to participate in IHSSA for the category of Spontaneous Speaking. He agreed to and managed to go to State for IHSSA for his abilities to speak on issues of the world in a short time span. After not partaking in a sport since his underclassmen year. Aleman decided to try out and be a part of the tennis team after a set of friends convinced him to join,

“I don’t think that there is a single person, but I think I’ve been most influenced by my peers,” Aleman said.
The influence of other people around Aleman made him want to really make a change in society, Aleman decided to join March for Our Lives, an organization that empower youth people to advocate for sensible gun violence prevention policies and increase their political engagement. When the Governor was introducing legislation that would limit the expression of people of the LGBTQ+ Community, Aleman help organized the We Say Gay Rally walkout that took place across Iowa to protect the laws proposed.

“Seeing a lot of my friends fighting for the rights of others has pushed me to join in that fight,” Aleman said.
In the end, East can look at Aleman as an example, an example of someone who can, even during they’re late years into high school, show that you can still have a lasting impact on what you can show off and do for your community,

“I think my success was a little bit of everything. I don’t regret any of the activities as I did and every single one helped me grow…Debate made me switch from a STEM career to wanting to do Political Science and potentially law school so that I can help people around Iowa and maybe the nation…you can never give up. It may seem hard at first but if you don’t give up you will always be able to get through it…mental health is really important, bad mental health hurt me a lot. It’s really important to maintain good mental health at the end,” Aleman said.